Posts From India

A first taste of India (Delhi, India)

Journal entry for Monday 24th Nov, 2014
(day 497, miles 10514)

Again I am doing "catchup". We had a productive and pleasant time in Bardenweiler and as planned
dropped the truck in Gaggenau on Friday morning. Spent Friday night in the Gernsbach Stadt Hotel
(we have been there so often now that they recognized us) and Saturday trained to Frankfurt
for our overnight flight to Delhi, India.

The Start of our tour (Delhi, India)

Journal entry for Tuesday 25th Nov, 2014
(day 498, miles 10514)

At dinner last night we met our tour guide Rajeev and the other members of the group, a total of 7 in all,
two Australian guys, a Canadian couple, Nina and I plus Rajeev. This morning as instructed we met in the lobby
at 8:00am and then into a mini-bus for the "days events".

Life (and death) on the Ganges (Varanasi, India)

Journal entry for Sunday 30th Nov, 2014
(day 503, miles 10514)

Another early (5:30am) start today, this time in order to get to the banks of the Ganges River in time to see
the start of the days activities. The river is called Ganga by Hindus and is worshipped as the god Ganga by them, and is one of the four mothers every Hindu has.

Erotic stone (Khajuraho, India)

Journal entry for Monday 1st Dec, 2014
(day 504, miles 10514)

This morning was another plane ride, to the village of Khajuraho and while it was only a short
hop it took up much of the morning delivering us to our hotel around 2:00pm.
Then after a short break to get "organized" we were off for a visit to a local historical
sites famous for its erotic carvings.

A country school (Agra, India)

Journal entry for Tuesday 2nd Dec, 2014
(day 505, miles 10514)

We had a longish mini-bus drive today to a town called Orchha, where lunch was provided at a local
"resort" and there after a tour of a local 16th Century palace. Following the palace tour
the bus ride continued to the city of Jhansi where we took a train to Agra.

The Taj (Agra, India)

Journal entry for Wednesday 3rd Dec, 2014
(day 506, miles 10514)

Today was the big day, the (supposed) highlight of the tour, our visit to the
Taj Mahal. It did not disappoint. It is
an astounding work of art. In the flesh it is more impressive than all the photos
but what surprised Nina and I was the details and small scale decoration. The Taj
building is made from a special Indian marble and all the decorations are
formed from colored stone and semi-precious stones inset into the marble. In some of the
decorations the insets are really small, of the order of 1 or 2 millimeters.